TOBACCO. 



621 



and smell, a]id is of a bright yello^Y color. The tobacco from 

 Xangasakay is very weak, in taste and smell perhaps the best, 

 and of a bright brown color. The tobacco from Sinday is very 

 good. The Japanese manufacture the tobacco so well, says Capt. 

 Grolownin, (EecoUections of Japan,) that though I was before no 

 friend to smoking, and even when I was at Jamaica could but 

 seldom persuade myself to smoke an Havana cigar, yet I smoked 

 the Japanese tobacco very frequently, and with great pleasure. 



The culture of tobacco is a very profitable article for the 

 laborers, seeing that the produce is obtained from grounds which 

 have already given the first crop. The qualities of Java tobacco 

 are more and more prized in the European markets, the prepara- 

 tion and assortment are not yet all that could be desired, but they 

 have progressed in this branch, and the contracts made with, the 

 new adventurers assure them of a considerable benefit. But 

 before the Java tobaccos can fijid an assured opening in the 

 European markets, it is necessary that the cultivators should make 

 use of seed from the Havana or Manila. The residencies of Eem- 

 bang, Sourabaya, Samarang, Chinbou, and Tagal, present districts 

 suited for its culture ; it has been carried on with success for a 

 good many years in the residencies of Treanger, Pakalongan, and 

 Kedu, but only for the consumption of the interior, and of the 

 Archipelago. 



Tobacco is cultivated in Celebes, but merely in sufficient quantity 

 for local consumption. It is exclusively grown by the Bantik 

 population — the mode of preparation is the same as in Java ; it is 

 chopped very fine and mostly flavored with arrack. When 

 bought in large quantities, it may be had for thii^ty cents the 

 pound ; but in smaller quantities it costs double that price. 



Tobacco is cultivated in New South Wales with much success. 

 Australia produces a leaf equal to Virginia, or the most fertile 

 parts of Kentucky, but the great difficulty is to extract the super- 

 abundant "nitre." The first crop in New South Wales exceeds 

 one ton per acre, and the second crop olf the same plants, yields 

 about half the weight of the first. In 1844 there were about 871 

 acres in cultivation in New South Wales with tobacco, and the 

 produce was returned at 6,382 cwts. In New England, New 

 South Wales, as fine a "fig" as could be wished for is manu- 

 factured under the superintendence of a thorough-bred Virginia to- 

 bacco manufacturer — but the impossibility of extracting the nitre 

 by the heating, or any other process, renders the flavor rank and 

 disagreeable. Perhaps cheroots, or the lower numbers of cigars, 

 manufactured from the Australian leaf, might prove more 

 successful. 



In Sydney the time for sowing tobacco seed is September, but 

 in Van Diemen's Land it should be a month later, as tobacco 

 plants cannot stand the frost. The ground should be made fine, 

 and in narrow beds three feet wide from path to path, to allow for 

 weeding without stepping on the beds. The seed, being small, 

 should not be raked in ; but after the ground is raked fine, and 



